Abbott: OLS troops provided unprecedented response to unprecedented border crisis

On Tuesday, Gov. Greg Abbott and incoming border czar Tom Homan met and served meals to Texas Army and Air National Guard soldiers and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers (DPS) stationed along the border during Thanksgiving working through Abbott’s border security mission, Operation Lone Star.

The governor and Homan met with OLS officers in Eagle Pass and Edinburg, Texas. They were joined by National Border Patrol Council President Paul Perez, DPS Director Steve McCraw, Adjutant General Thomas Suelzer and Texas Border Czar Mike Banks.

At the event in Edinburg, Abbott said their deployment to the border “was truly unprecedented. Things that have happened in the last four years have never before happened in the history of the United States of America.” The troops were providing “an unprecedented response to an unprecedented threat,” referring to the greatest number of illegal border crossers reported in U.S. history under the Biden administration.

He described the violent crimes committed against Americans by illegal border crossers, including children being assaulted and murdered and the “countless others whose homes have been invaded, whose lives have been destroyed.”

The border crisis was unprecedented for all Americans, for “our own country [due to the loss] of our very own border,” he said.

Speaking to the troops, he said, “some of you have served in foreign lands across the entire world working to ensure American’s safety both now and as well as for our future.”Now, their service along the Texas border was critical “to preserve the safety and sovereignty and security of your very own states, your very own country, your very own border. You make Texas proud.”

However, OLS wasn’t on its own anymore, he said. “The good news is help is on the way, like nothing we’ve seen before. The calvary is coming,” referring to President-elect Donald Trump and his new border czar, Tom Homan.

“President Trump is going to be the greatest president we’ve ever had, and we’re coming back,” Homan said. “When Trump was in office, we had your six,” he told the troops. “This administration didn’t.” He also said South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who was nominated to be Trump’s secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, “gets it. She understands it. She has some good ideas” about border security he said, adding that he was looking forward to working with her and to her Senate confirmation.

He also reiterated that it was necessary to implement a mass deportation plan in response to a massive illegal immigration plan implemented by the Biden administration. “We’re going to have an interior deportation operation,” he continued, referring to a targeted removal plan he previously explained to The Center Square. It prioritizes removing violent criminals and those with existing removal orders and finding 300,000 unaccounted for unaccompanied minors who were brought into the country under the administration, he said.

“You can’t have millions of people illegally cross the border, which is a crime, make an asylum claim, be given due process and a judge says they must go home, and not send them home. You have to have a massive deportation process,” he said.

He also expressed alarm about the more than two million known gotaways, first reported by The Center Square. Gotaways is the official U.S. Customs and Border Protection term to describe those who illegally enter the country, don’t make asylum claims and intentionally evade capture.

“People who paid more to get away,” Homan said, referring to illegal border crossers paying coyotes to guide them into the country to circumvent Border Patrol checkpoints. “They didn’t claim asylum, they didn’t want to be vetted,” he said, “and we have no idea who or where they are. This is the biggest national security threat our country has faced since 9/11 and Trump is going to shut down the border.”

The troops cheered in support of Homan. As each officer and soldier came up to get food, they asked to have their picture taken with Homan and the governor or took selfies with them.